Friday, December 31, 2010

The Mission

So i got a message from Rob Choi asking me if i wanted to go to the hot ditch...What a silly question! Of course i want to go fishing!

The mission for both of us was to catch a citation speckled trout to make it our 3rd citation for the year. (same species coincidentally...Sheepshead, Striper, and hopefully speckled trout)

I started the day a little late partially due to my kayak being covered with snow but mostly because i was being reelly lazy and got up late.
I filled a bucket with hot water and poured it on the yak...One bucket hardly put a dent in it. Two buckets after that it was enough.

I wasted a little more time going to 2 tackle shops looking for some 4lb test mono...evidently 4lb test is not popular around here because they didn't have any. Finally after being lazy, clearing snow, looking for tackle, and getting food I made it to the ditch nice and early at the crack of Noon-thirty.

I met up with Rob who let me know why its good to be earlier than later by telling me that he already caught several Specks up to 20". After fishing for an hour or so with only a few small specks to show for it we decided to move. We stopped at one of my favorite spots and again we caught some more dinks and i also got a good fighting 20"er

We paddled to the famous "Pond" and started fishing in the middle of about 12-15 boats...what a madhouse! I felt like i was on the HRBT at rush hour. I like how Rob put it " like paddling through a minefield of bobbers". Aside from 2-3 dudes there, I think we were the only ones using artificial bait. We fished for an hour or 2 and Rob got the first hook-up. He fought it for a bit but it spit the hook. After a few choice words he got back to it and hooked another bigger one. I didn't know it at the time but he was using 2lb test line! He landed the nice trout then paddled to shore so I paddled over to him to get some pictures (plus i had to pee reel bad). It was a fat 24.25" 4lb 4oz release citation trout! Mission...Success!
Rob left me all alone after that but gave me his lucky mirrolure that he just use to catch the big one. Unfortunately It didn't work for me. I used it for an hour at least but it was worthless...I think he might have poisoned it...anyways when i switched back over to MY lure i hooked a heavy trout but lost it just when it boiled the surface. I had 3 more hits in the next 4 casts but could not for the life of me get one hooked. 3 hours of fishing at the pond and nothing to show for it!

I decided to go back to the truck for more clothes cause it was FREEZING! I got more gear and went straight to my favorite spot. It only took about 20 mins of fishing and i hooked something reel nice (Notice how I keep purposely misspelling real because it's a pun?...I'm hilarious.) I fought it for 5-10 mins on "my" 6' light action spinning rod. (its actually my wife's but I like it) It ended up being a 26" 5lb 12oz Weight citation speckled trout! Yay me! Mission accomplished!

I fished for another hour or so and caught a few small specks and decided since the mission was already a success I could leave happy. I ended the day with about 15 specks almost all of which were 15" and less. On my second to last cast i snagged a gizzard shad that reminded me of what might possibly be my next fishing trip...jumbo catfish on the James!


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